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Extradition of Fethullah Gulen Would Betray Pluralism

Extraditing dissident Islamist cleric Fethullah Gulen to Turkey would be a betrayal of American values and should be permanently off the table. President Trump says that handing over Gulen to Turkey is not under consideration “at this point.” That’s not good enough.

Extradition of Fethullah Gulen Would Betray PluralismT

his would be a violation of American ideals to extradite dissident Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen to Turkey, and it should be forever off the table. President Trump claims that “at this point” donating Gulen to Turkey is not under consideration. That’s not good enough.

On November 15, NBC News reported that officials in the administration considered Turkey’s offer to extradite Gulen, who has lived in Pennsylvania since 1998. It quoted two senior U.S. officials who said in October the Justice Department and the FBI had been asked to reopen the extradition case of Turkey against Gulen. There have been inquiries regarding his immigration status. This concern was allegedly intended to placate Turkey by handing over Gulen in exchange for catching diplomatic heat off Saudi Arabia following the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi of the Washington Post.

Since the assassination, Turkey has organized a slow leak and disclosure campaign designed to keep the story in the news and to reveal Saudi lies about what happened.

Saturday, during the G20 summit, the two leaders reportedly met privately for nearly an hour. It is not known whether it was discussing the Gulen issue.

Turkish officials previously requested the extradition of Gulen after a coup attempted in 2016, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan baselessly blames Gulen for. He has departed from being an ally of Erdogan to being his scapegoat.

Turkey calls the “Fethullah Terrorist Organization” followers of Gulen and accuses them of attempting to build a parallel state by allegedly infiltrating state institutions, especially the military, police and judiciary.

In Turkey, freedom of thought and expression has disappeared. People were even jailed for appearing on a Gulen documentary. The dissidents told The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) that Turkish authorities accuse dissenters of being gulenists regardless of whether they are part of the movement. In April, Erdogan bragged that 80 gulenists had been kidnapped by Turkish operatives and brought back to Turkey. He vowed against nab Gulen, too.

“You will come as well, who are in Pennsylvania,” Erdogan said of Gulen.

Since the failed coup, more than 82,000 people have been arrested and more than 200,000 in detention. Around 6,000 academics were killed, 319 journalists were detained and 189 independent media outlets shut down, according to TurkeyPurge.com, which was run by former Zaman editor Abdullah Bozkurt of Today. Today’s Zaman was one of the biggest newspapers in Turkey, until it was shut down by Turkish authorities in 2016. There’s no longer any independent media critical of the Erdogan regime.

If he were to be extradited Gulen would face an uncertain fate. In January, Amnesty International reported that Turkish prisoners are facing torture and beatings, and Erdogan will most likely want to give his rival an example. And if Turkey implements the death penalty for convicted terrorists – as Erdogan describes Gulen, handing him over could turn into a death sentence.

Extrading Gulen would send a message that America is no longer a “beacon” of freedom, and that President Trump is weak, say the IPT to Turkish dissidents purged by the Erdogan regime.

The support of President Reagan for Soviet dissidents provides “a strong contrast to what Trump is alleged to be considering. I thought Trump read Erdogan better than what Obama did that was an appeasement,” said Bozkurt, who was purged by Erdogan in 2016. “It points to a weakness that Erdogan smells and wants to exploit to his own advantage.”

Bozkurt compares Trump’s response to Gulen with the president’s response to American Evangelical Pastor Andrew Brunson who had been previously incarcerated. In the case of Brunson, Trump placed economic sanctions on Turkey to compel the country to let it go. In the case of Gulen, Bozkurt sees the administration vacillate and is less committed to the human rights cause.

Extrading Gulen would be a “point of no return” to America ‘s international legitimacy as it would send the message that other Turkish activists can not rely on American values, said Ahmet Yayla, a former Turkish National Police counterter-terrorism official purged by Erdogan in 2015.

Like Erdogan, Gulen is an Islamist, but his ideology poses less of a threat to America and the West than the totalitarianism and pro-terrorism policies of Erdogan. In contrast, for example, to other Islamists, Gulen views the issue of headscarves for women as a matter of personal choice. He is also worried that Erdogan’s Turkey “will be a nightmare for stability in the Middle East, providing haven for violent extremists and driving its Kurdish people into despair.”

This has happened before.

According to Yayla, Turkish government officials instructed police not to intercept militants from ISIS and al-Qaeda who cross into Syria. “To look at the AKP and Al-Qaeda as enemies would be a mistake.”

Hacked emails leaked in 2016 revealed that a company owned by Erdogan’s son-in – law, Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, took advantage of the illegal sale of ISIS oil. According to Kurdish sources, Turkey’s intelligence agency, the MIT, has provided assistance to ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria. According to the Stockholm Center for Freedom at Bozkurt, charities linked to both terrorist groups operate openly in Turkey.

Erdogan openly announces that Hamas is not a group of terrorists. “It’s a movement of resistance that is defending the Palestinian homeland against an occupying power,” Erdogan wrote in May on his official Twitter account.

Hamas chief Salah Arouri, who has been identified as a specially designated U.S. terrorist, worked from Turkish soil until 2015 for several years. Representatives of Hamas military personnel are still working in Turkey. Israel’s Shin Bet found that Turkey also funds and helps equip Hamas with corporate intermediaries such as SADAT International Defense Consulting, founded and chaired by Brig. General Adnan Tanriverdi, a key Erdogan adviser.

Instead of looking to violate U.S. principles of human rights by potentially handing over Gulen, President Trump must take a tough line against the rogue-state activities of Turkey

 

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